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Suspicions are running wild over what Apple and Foxconn could be up to in China with the launch of what some are calling a small but secretive iPhone manufacturing plant. Of course, if it's a manufacturing plant, it's a little difficult to understand what's so "secretive" about the operation. One could naturally assume that this facility is simply another Chinese-based location for making the very devices that are already in such short supply around the world.

But as Jonny Evans of Computerworld noted in his blog today, this "secret factory" could very well be where Apple is testing the waters for mass producing a CDMA iPhone. Evans acknowledged first hearing of Foxconn's plan to open a new factory "while the world was discussing the outbreak of suicides at the company's huge factories earlier this summer." According to the report, the confirmed construction of the new $100 million factory will begin later this month. A temporary workshop in inland China, however, is now churning out iPhones as Apple and Foxconn prepare to build the aforementioned "permanent plant nearby to make iPhones for Apple".

The Computerworld report suggests that the temporary facility now being used until the big plant is finished may exist as a means for Apple to to produce small quantities of iPhone prototypes - possibly including 4G, LTE, and/or CDMA-capable models. What in all likelihood is transpiring is both Apple and Foxconn are taking this opportunity to "spend some time figuring out the best way to manufacture new devices," all while growing a trained workforce (of 500) capable of taking their knowledge to the mass production assembly lines of the forthcoming mega facility.